Lessons Learned 26

The past couple of sessions have been, well, hectic. Between everyone's normal routine of a few missing here and there, plus my own employer keeping me later than usual, attendance has been spotty. With that in mind, and the ultimate goal of getting everyone together as best we can, and in-person too, now that most of us are successfully vaccinated against COVID-19, we have continued to grind forward as best we can. That is all you can do, as players not showing up to a game is the most common issue with any gaming group. Well, probably the most common issue among gamers is not being able to get along with the rest of the group, but once you get a group that can stand each other long enough to game regularly, the most common issue is having someone miss a session. Which is understandable - no matter how much effort you, the game master, put into your preparations, there is a high likelihood that one of your players will miss that session. We are talking about a pastime here, not their jobs or livelihoods, not their families, just some friends and a game. So if something, anything, else comes up - family emergency, change in work schedule, lack of sleep, illness, whatever - your player is going to miss. All you can do is hope that only one (or two, if you have a larger than average group) player misses per session so that the interruption is as mild as possible. 

Keeping that in mind, I think my most successful method of alleviating this is to have my players leave their characters at my house (where we play our weekly games) and if they are going to miss, their PC is run by someone else who does manage to show up. As I am a more mature DM (read: I'm old) who is also more settled financially, I provide to each of my players a full 3-ring binder for their character, complete with plastic page protectors for character sheets, lined paper for notes, and graph paper for maps (I have discussed this previously). This helps keep each player more organized, and when they have to be handed off, more accessible to the other players. I am also planning in my next session, as we already have one player out due to work schedule conflict and likely another by game time as well, to spend some time at the beginning of the session and discuss some tactics and strategies with the group. Not so much tactics as walking them through their individual PCs and reminding them of their own abilities, clarifying some rules questions, and also introducing them more in-depth to their new Sidekicks. I have two very new players and would like to make sure, as they did not play the majority of the last eleven levels of their PCs like the rest of the party have, exactly what they can do and what they should think about doing with their characters. Those players who have gained Sidekicks, I want to make sure they have a good grasp on their Sidekicks' abilities and what they should be doing, both in and out of combat. Finally, I want to do all of this with as many other players present so that, when the time comes, they are as prepared as possible to run someone else's PC.

I also need to do some rule clarifying, as their is some question on the Polymorph spell and rules for mounted combat. They came up in my last session and I like to ponder them, do some research, and then come back with a definitive answer that everyone hears while not in the thick of battle. Turns out that Polymorph (not True Polymorph, the 9th level spell), you can only turn yourself or some other creature into a Beast, which is but one of the monster types in the game. It is not terribly clear in the spell description - they should have capitalized "beast" like I did - but upon closer inspection of the spell itself there are other clues I should have picked up on, namely "it can't speak, cast Spells, or take any other action that requires hands or Speech". Pretty much all of the other monster types have enough INT to talk, but Beasts are just that, your average, not terribly magical or fantastical, everyday animals. Sure, there is some fantasy amongst their members, as all of the "giant" and "dire" variants of our mundane animals are Beasts, but the rest are just ordinary animals.

A big lesson the party learned is Don't Split the Party. Two of their numbers were off in the woods, leading many giants on a merry chase, while the remaining four (with no Sidekicks nor the high caliber artillery, the Wizard) faced off against two Fire Giants. At the party's current level, this was a tough fight, but to do it without your big guns and support personnel was nigh deadly. It did not help the party any that their tactical decisions were also lacking, as it turns out that Fire Giants laugh at Fire Elementals and spells like Heat Metal. At least in 5e, fire spells do not heal fire-based creatures, as other editions have done, but when the stat block says Damage Immunities: Fire, you do not have to roll any kind of Save, that creature automatically ignores all damage from those types of attacks. Yes, one of the players attempted the classic Cook and Book attack, and the Fire Giant giggled and said something along the lines of "reminds me of home".

The last lesson I attempted to teach the party, though they still think otherwise, is that some fights are just tough. I tend not to throw things at them that they cannot overcome, yet every fight is not balanced to be exactly the right Challenge Rating for their current level. Yes, this last fight they participated in was pretty tough - a Frost Giant, 5 Hill Giants, and 10 Ogres - but the party is 11th level and have a bit more in the way of magical gear compared to other 5e parties (first two campaign arcs we played were translated from 3e, and Third was much more giving when it came to treasure than 5e is), they handled it pretty well. They grumbled of course, made comments about me trying to punish them, but in the end they defeated the enemy. You have to throw tougher fights at your party, not all the time, but every so often so that they do not become bored or complacent. The Angry GM goes into far more depth than I can, you should read at least this article, if not the others in the series. To sum up, sometimes you need to throw an easy fight at the group, sometimes a fight that is balanced to their level, and other times you need to dump something more challenging on them. This way you avoid "bored and complacent" with your party.